I'm Walking, Yes Indeed

It's been just over one month since Tinker re-injured his right rear ACL. He was put on crate rest and given a prescription of Deramaxx (a class of NSAID), which we hesitantly gave to him. In case you aren't aware of it there is a lot of controversy surrounding both Deramaxx and Rimadyl.

After three days we took Tinker off the Deramaxx due to a enormous increase in his urine output. Where he would normally go outside after 3-4 hours, Tinker's bladder was ready to burst after an hour. The literature on the drug's official website said that dispensing the med should be stopped if there is a significant change in bladder output and that's exactly what we did. Tinker's bladder output returned to normal just 24 hours after stopping the Deramaxx. We cannot stress enough the importance of knowing all potential side effects of any medication, whether it is for your animal or yourself. Okay, we'll hop down off the soap box now. :)

Tinker usually has no problem being crated, but was more reticent this time, putting on quite the whine fest in the morning after breakfast and in the evening after dinner. It could definitely drive you to the point of distraction.

Thankfully there was plenty of good weather so Tinker enjoyed some mornings and afternoons out on our deck. Don't worry we didn't let him use the grill.

We decided right from the start that we would allow Tinker to sleep out of the crate at night since the room is gated off and he wants nothing more than to just curl up next to his sister or spread out on the big square flat bed we bought for him. After about 2 weeks we also starting giving in at night and letting him out of the crate after his post-dinner whining. (We made sure to let him out after he had stopped whining so wouldn't be rewarding the behavior.) Again, this was no problem, since he wanted nothing more than to just curl up in his bed in front of the couch. And if he did wander off, we would say, "Get back in that bed young man" and he would scurry right back to the bed and lay down. It was a very funny sight to see.

While Tinker was healing the two of us were getting sore shoulders, necks, and backs from using the back sling harness to walk him.

So we were happy to get a good progress report from Dr. Massicotte after a 3-week follow up. One more week of crate rest was recommended for Tink and then we could slowly start to walk with him with his regular harness. About half-way through the 4th week we started taking Tinker on short walks with his regular harness while still using the rear sling harness for longer walks. He had no problem building his stamina back up and now we are walking him only on his regular harness.

Needless to say, Tinker is very happy to be free and hanging out with Virginia again.